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For some, this past election year was about the slow death of the current political system. For Jon Katz, on the other hand, it marked the rise of postpolitics and the birth of the Digital Nation.
First stirrings
On the Net last year, I saw the rebirth of love for liberty in media. I saw a culture crowded with intelligent, educated, politically passionate people who - in jarring contrast to the offline world - line up to express their civic opinions, participate in debates, even fight for their political beliefs.
I watched people learn new ways to communicate politically. I watched information travel great distances, then return home bearing imprints of engaged and committed people from all over the world. I saw positions soften and change when people were suddenly able to talk directly to one another, rather than through journalists, politicians, or ideological mercenaries.
I saw the primordial stirrings of a new kind of nation - the Digital Nation - and the formation of a new postpolitical philosophy. This nascent ideology, fuzzy and difficult to define, suggests a blend of some of the best values rescued from the tired old dogmas - the humanism of liberalism, the economic opportunity of conservatism, plus a strong sense of personal responsibility and a passion for freedom.
I came across questions, some tenuously posed: Are we living in the middle of a great revolution, or are we just members of another arrogant élite talking to ourselves? Are we a powerful new kind of community or just a mass of people hooked up to machines? Do we share goals and ideals, or are we just another hot market ready for exploitation by America's ravenous corporations?
And perhaps the toughest questions of all: Can we build a new kind of politics? Can we construct a more civil society with our powerful technologies? Are we extending the evolution of freedom among human beings? Or are we nothing more than a great, wired babble pissing into the digital wind?
Where freedom is rarely mentioned in mainstream media anymore, it is ferociously defended - and exercised daily - on the Net.
Where our existing information systems seek to choke the flow of information through taboos, costs, and restrictions, the new digital world celebrates the right of the individual to speak and be heard - one of the cornerstone ideas behind American media and democracy.
Where our existing political institutions are viewed as remote and unresponsive, this online culture offers the means for individuals to have a genuine say in the decisions that affect their lives.
Where conventional politics is suffused with ideology, the digital world is obsessed with facts.
Where our current political system is irrational, awash in hypocritical god-and-values talk, the Digital Nation points the way toward a more rational, less dogmatic approach to politics.
The world's information is being liberated, and so, as a consequence, are we. My journey
Early last year, writer John Heilemann and I set out on parallel media journeys for HotWired's The Netizen, originally created to explore political issues and the media during the election year. One concept behind The Netizen - a conceit, perhaps - was that we would watch the impact of the Web on the political process in the first wired election. Heilemann was to cover the candidates, the conventions, and the campaigns. I would write about the media covering them.
Things didn't turn out quite as we'd expected at The Netizen. The year of the Web was not 1996 - at least not in terms of mainstream politics. The new culture wasn't strong enough yet to really affect the political process. The candidates didn't turn to it as they had turned in 1992 to new media like cable, fax, and 800 numbers.
And the election was shallow from the beginning, with no view toward the new postindustrial economy erupting around us and no vision of a digital - or any other kind of - future. By spring '96, it seemed clear to me that this campaign was a metaphor for all that doesn't work in both journalism and politics. I couldn't bear The New York Times pundits, CNN's politico-sports talk, the whoring Washington talk shows, the network stand-ups.
Why attend to those tired institutions when what was happening on the monitor a foot from my nose seemed so much more interesting? Fresh ideas, fearsome debates, and a brand-new culture were rising out of the primordial digital muck, its politics teeming with energy. How could a medium like this new one have a major impact on a leaden old process like that one? By focusing so obsessively on Them, we were missing a much more dramatic political story - Us.
So I mostly abandoned Their campaign, focusing instead on the politics of Ours - especially interactivity and the digital culture. I was flamed, challenged, and stretched almost daily. The Web became my formidable teacher, whacking me on the palm with a ruler when I didn't do my homework or wasn't listening intently enough; comforting me when I got discouraged or felt lost.
I argued with technoanarchists about rules, flamers about civility, white kids about rap, black kids about police, journalists about media, evangelicals about sin. I was scolded by scholars and academics for flawed logic or incomplete research. I was shut down by "family values" email bombers outraged by my attacks on Wal-Mart's practice of sanitizing the music it sells.
I saw the strange new way in which information and opinion travel down the digital highway - linked to Web sites, passed on to newsgroups, mailing lists, and computer conferencing systems. I saw my columns transformed from conventional punditry to a series of almost-living organisms that got buttressed, challenged, and altered by the incredible volume of feedback suddenly available. I lost the ingrained journalistic ethic that taught me that I was right, and that my readers didn't know what was good for them. On the Web, I learned that I was rarely completely right, that I was only a transmitter of ideas waiting to be shaped and often improved upon by people who knew more than I did.
Ideas almost never remain static on the Web. They are launched like children into the world, where they are altered by the many different environments they pass through, almost never coming home in the same form in which they left.
All the while, I had the sense of Heilemann cranking along like the Energizer Bunny, responsibly slugging his way through the torturous ordeal of campaign coverage, guiding the increasingly-exasperated people who actually wanted to follow the election. What Heilemann learned and relayed was that the political system isn't functioning. It doesn't address serious problems, and the problems it does address are not confronted in a rational way. It doesn't present us with the information we need or steer us toward comprehension - let alone solution.
Over the course of 1996, the ideologies that shape our political culture seemed to collapse. Liberalism finally expired along with the welfare culture it had inadvertently spawned. Conservatism, reeling from the failure of the so-called Republican revolution, was exposed as heartless and rigid. The left and the right - even on issues as explosive as abortion and welfare - appeared spent. While they squabbled eternally with one another, the rest of us ached for something better. In l996, we didn't get it.
The candidates didn't raise a single significant issue, offer a solution to any major social problem, raise the nation's consciousness, or prod its conscience about any critical matter. The issues the candidates did debate were either false or manipulative, the tired imperatives of another time.
"Nineteen ninety-six was the year that Old Politics died," wrote Heilemann. "For outside this bizarre electoral system that's grown and mutated over the past 40 years - this strange, pseudo-meta-ritual that, experienced from the inside, feels like being trapped in an echo chamber lined with mirrors - there are profound, paradigm-shifting changes afoot."
There are paradigm-shifting changes afoot: the young people who form the heart of the digital world are creating a new political ideology. The machinery of the Internet is being wielded to create an environment in which the Digital Nation can become a political entity in its own right.
By avoiding the campaign most of the time, I ended up in another, unexpected place. I had wandered into the nexus between the past and the future, the transition from one political process to a very different one.
While Heilemann came to believe he was attending a wake, I began to feel I was witnessing a birth - the first stirrings of a powerful new political community. The nascent nation
All kinds of people of every age and background are online, but at the heart of the Digital Nation are the people who created the Net, work in it, and whose business, social, and cultural lives increasingly revolve around it.
The Digital Nation constitutes a new social class. Its citizens are young, educated, affluent. They inhabit wired institutions and industries - universities, computer and telecom companies, Wall Street and financial outfits, the media. They live everywhere, of course, but are most visible in forward-looking, technologically advanced communities: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Minneapolis, Austin, Raleigh. They are predominantly male, although female citizens are joining in enormous - and increasingly equal - numbers.
The members of the Digital Nation are not representative of the population as a whole: they are richer, better educated, and disproportionately white. They have disposable income and available time. Their educations are often unconventional and continuous, and they have almost unhindered access to much of the world's information. As a result, their values are constantly evolving. Unlike the rigid political ideologies that have ruled America for decades, the ideas of the postpolitical young remain fluid.
Still, some of their common values are clear: they tend to be libertarian, materialistic, tolerant, rational, technologically adept, disconnected from conventional political organizations - like the Republican or Democratic parties - and from narrow labels like liberal or conservative. They are not politically correct, rejecting dogma in favor of sorting through issues individually, preferring discussions to platforms.
The digital young are bright. They are not afraid to challenge authority. They take no one's word for anything. They embrace interactivity - the right to shape and participate in their media. They have little experience with passively reading newspapers or watching newscasts delivered by anchors.
They share a passion for popular culture - perhaps their most common shared value, and the one most misperceived and mishandled by politicians and journalists. On Monday mornings when they saunter into work, they are much more likely to be talking about the movies they saw over the weekend than about Washington's issue of the week. Music, movies, magazines, some television shows, and some books are elementally important to them - not merely forms of entertainment but means of identity.
As much as anything else, the reflexive contempt for popular culture shared by so many elders of journalism and politics has alienated this group, causing its members to view the world in two basic categories: those who get it, and those who don't. For much of their lives, these young people have been branded ignorant, their culture malevolent. The political leaders and pundits who malign them haven't begun to grasp how destructive these perpetual assaults have been, how huge a cultural gap they've created.
Although many would balk at defining themselves this way, the digital young are revolutionaries. Unlike the clucking boomers, they are not talking revolution; they're making one. This is a culture best judged by what it does, not what it says.
In On Revolution, Hannah Arendt wrote that two things are needed to generate great revolutions: the sudden experience of being free and the sense of creating something. The Net is revolutionary in precisely those ways. It liberates millions of people to do things they couldn't do before. Men and women can experiment with their sexual identities without being humiliated or arrested. Citizens can express themselves directly, without filtering their views through journalists or pollsters. Researchers can get the newest data in hours, free from the grinding rituals of scientific tradition. The young can explore their own notions of culture, safe from the stern scrutiny of parents and teachers.
There's also a sense of great novelty, of building something different. The online population of today has evolved dramatically from the hackers and academics who patched together primitive computer bulletin boards just a few years ago - but the sensation of discovery remains. People coming online still have the feeling of stepping across a threshold. Citizenship in this world requires patience, commitment, and determination - an investment of time and energy that often brings the sense of participating in something very new.
It's difficult to conceive of the digital world as a political entity. The existing political and journalistic structures hate the very thought, since that means relinquishing their own central place in political life. And the digital world itself - adolescent, self-absorbed - is almost equally reluctant to take itself seriously in a political context, since that invokes all sorts of responsibilities that seem too constraining and burdensome.
This is a culture founded on the ethos of individuality, not leadership. Information flows laterally, or from many to many - a structure that works against the creation of leaders.
Like it or not, however, this Digital Nation possesses all the traits of groups that, throughout history, have eventually taken power. It has the education, the affluence, and the privilege that will create a political force that ultimately must be reckoned with. Some postpolitical core values
Out of sight of the reporters, handlers, spin-masters, and politicians of the presidential campaign, a new political sensibility took shape in 1996. It brought fresh ideas. It brought real debates about real issues.
The postpolitical ideology draws from different elements of familiar politics. The term postpolitical gets tossed around in various circles, but here it refers to a new kind of politics beyond the traditional choices of left/right, liberal/conservative, Republican/Democrat. Although still taking shape, this postpolitical ideology combines some of the better elements of both sides of the mainstream American political spectrum.
From liberals, this ideology adopts humanism. It is suspicious of law enforcement. It abhors censorship. It recoils from extreme governmental positions like the death penalty. From conservatives, the ideology takes notions of promoting economic opportunity, creating smaller government, and insisting on personal responsibility.
The digital young share liberals' suspicions of authority and concentration of power but have little of their visceral contempt for corporations or big business. They share the liberal analysis that social problems like poverty, rather than violence on TV, are at the root of crime. But, unlike liberals, they want the poor to take more responsibility for solving their own problems.
This amalgam of values reveals itself in seemingly odd ways. Many online had no trouble believing that the Los Angeles Police Department was racist or, conceivably, might have planted evidence in the O. J. Simpson murder case. There was no sympathy, though, for the idea that O. J. should have been acquitted as a result of such technicalities.
The postpoliticos can outdo liberals on some fronts. They don't merely embrace tolerance as an ideal; they are inherently tolerant. Theirs is the first generation for whom pluralism and diversity are neither controversial nor unusual. This group couldn't care less whether families take the traditional form or have two moms or two dads. They are nearly blind to the color and ethnic heritage of the people who enter their culture. This is the least likely group to bar someone from a club because he or she is Jewish or black, or to avoid marriage because of a person's religion or ethnicity.
On the other hand, the digital young's intuitive acceptance of tolerance and diversity doesn't prevent them from rejecting liberal notions like affirmative action. And they are largely impervious to victim-talk, or politically correct rhetoric, or the culture of complaint celebrated in the liberal media coverage of many minority issues.
This culture is no less averse to the cruel and suffocating dogma of the right. The postpolitical young embrace the notion of gender equality and are intrinsically hostile to any government or religious effort to dictate private personal behavior. While conservatism has become entwined with an evangelical religious agenda, the digital young are allergic to mixing religion and politics.
If liberals say, "Here's the tent: we have to get everyone inside," and conservatives say, "Here's the tent: we don't want it to get too crowded inside," the postpolitical young say, "Here's the tent: everyone is welcome - but everyone has to figure out how to get inside on his or her own."
One of the biggest ideas in the postpolitical world is that we have the means to shape our lives, and that we must take more responsibility for doing so. This ascending generation believes its members should and will control their destinies. A recent survey in American Demographics magazine studied young Americans and called them self-navigators."In a fast-changing and often hostile world, self-navigation means relying on oneself to be the captain of one's own ship and charting one's own course," wrote the Brain Waves Group, the survey's developers. Those characteristics also describe many citizens of the Digital Nation.
This group values competence and hard work, the survey found. Traditional formulas for success carry little weight since college degrees no longer guarantee jobs, getting a job doesn't guarantee you'll keep it, retirement may never be possible, and marriages can fail. Despite such caution, this group - in sharp contrast to its boomer parents - sees a future of great opportunity. The Digital Nation is optimistic about its own prospects.
Although these ideas work well for them now, as the postpolitical young of the digital world grow older, they will confront a new range of problems, from developing careers to raising children to preparing for old age. Their ideology will, of necessity, develop and change.
As they raise children, they will face issues such as neighborhood safety, maintaining parks, and improving the educational system. As they buy homes, they will encounter bread-and-butter political issues like taxation and zoning. Faced with developing a new political agenda in a radically different world, they will inevitably find themselves face-to-face with the ghosts of the old one. A new form of libertarianism
The closest thing the digital world has to dogma is its ingrained libertarianism, its wholehearted commitment to political and economic freedom, its fierce opposition to constraints on individual expression - from the chilling fanaticism of the politically correct to the growing movement to censor popular culture.
The online world is the freest community in American life. Its members can do things considered unacceptable elsewhere in our culture. They can curse freely, challenge the existence of god, explore their sexuality nearly at will, talk to radical thinkers from all over the world. They can even commit verbal treason.
The Internet is still a wild frontier. The hackers and geeks who founded and shaped it believed that there should be no obstacles between people and information, and there are still vibrant, almost outlaw communities that enforce this notion: cypherpunks who act as technoanarchists, flamers who challenge punditry, hackers who breech the barriers constantly being thrown up by government and business.
The single dominant ethic in this community is that information wants to be free. Many of those online know that this idea is antithetical to the history of media, to the nature of politics and capitalism. Corporations do not believe that information should be free - they believe they should control it and charge for it. Government doesn't believe that information should be free - witness the fiasco of the Communications Decency Act. Religious organizations, educators, and many parents don't believe information ought to be liberated, either. The realization that children have broken away from many societal constraints and now have access to a vast information universe is one of the most frightening ideas in contemporary America.
These new libertarian notions are often misunderstood. While some longstanding political groups associated with libertarianism are profoundly hostile to government, the digital young are not so much paranoid about government as frustrated by its lack of effectiveness. They don't see government conspiring to take over their lives as much as they consider it an outdated means of solving problems. It's widely acknowledged in online discussions, for example, that traditional drug policies have been catastrophic failures and that radical new ideas - legalization, perhaps - should be considered.
The digital young, from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to college students, have a nearly universal contempt for government's ability to work; they think it's wasteful and clueless. On the Net, government is rarely seen as an instrument of positive change or social good. Politicians are assumed to be manipulative or ill-informed, unable to affect reform or find solutions, forced to lie to survive. The Digital Nation's disconnection from the conventional political process - and from the traditional media that mirror it - is profound.
Both politics and journalism tend to refer to this alienation as a civic disorder, brought on by new media and new culture and a decline in literacy and civilization. The young must be disinterested because they are distracted by music or coarsened by too much TV. But in their own way, the young are saying something different: the political system doesn't work, so why bother to pay attention to it?
This very sense of alienation has planted the seeds of more civil notions of politics and community. Although online culture is widely perceived as hostile and chaotic, the stereotype is superficial. Writing for The Netizen, I noticed a recurring phenomenon that speaks both to that sense of alienation and to the potential for community.
As anyone who writes on the Web knows, criticism comes fast and furious. Some of it is cruel - even vicious. But as an experiment, I began responding to angry email as if it were civil, addressing the point being made instead of the tone of the message. The pattern was clear: at least three-quarters of the time, the most hostile emailers responded with apologies, often picking up the discussion as if it had been perfectly polite. In hundreds of instances, flamers said things like, "Sorry, but I had no idea you would actually read this," or "I never expected to get a reply."
Months of these exchanges have convinced me that alienation online - and perhaps offline as well - is not ingrained, that it comes from a reflexive assumption that powerful political and media institutions don't care, won't listen, and will not respond. Proven wrong, many of the most hostile flamers became faithful correspondents, often continuing to disagree - but in a civil way. I found myself listening more to them as well.
We were forming a new sort of media culture. In small ways, over time, we were moving beyond the head-butting that characterizes too many online discussions (offline ones, too) and engaging in actual dialog, the cornerstone of any real political entity. We were finding that interactivity could bring a new kind of community, new ways of holding political conversations.
Of all the prospects raised by the evolution of digital culture, the most tantalizing is the possibility that technology could fuse with politics to create a more civil society. It's the possibility that we could end up with a media and political culture in which people could amass factual material, voice their perspectives, confront other points of view, and discuss issues in a rational way. A new rationalism
At the moment, the Internet and the Web are two of the most chaotic media ever - brawling and ill-defined. But they suggest new ways to gather and distribute facts, to make an end run around the dogma-driven discussions of conventional politics.
In our current system, all issues get presented in liberal or conservative terms. Liberals almost never support the death penalty; conservatives almost always do. Conservatives say police need to crack down on crime; liberals complain about police brutality. Journalists, reduced by their corporate owners to the role of social stenographers, report what one side says, then the other. Civic discussion becomes an irrational stalemate. The digital world offers real promise of a more enlightened way.
The concept of rationalism grew out of the Enlightenment, becoming crystallized in a formal philosophy espoused by a small group of 17th- and 18th-century philosophers - among them, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz. Its main principles were: reason can be the one and only means of determining a course of action; knowledge forms a single system and can be deduced; everything ultimately is explicable. Rationalism advances a primary commitment to reason, as opposed to faith or dogma or any other source of irrational conviction.
Enlightenment philosophies, wrote Peter Gay in The Enlightenment, "made up a clamorous chorus, but what is striking is their general harmony, not their occasional discord." They united on a profoundly ambitious program of secularism, humanism, cosmopolitanism, and, above all, writes Gay, freedom - "freedom from arbitrary power, freedom of speech, freedom of trade, freedom to realize one's talents, freedom of aesthetic response, freedom, in a word, of moral man to make his own way in the world."
None of these enormous ideas transformed the world at once. But they were great leaps forward in the service of freedom - at the time an unknown concept in most of the world. Out of the Enlightenment came the American and French Revolutions, which advanced the radical notion that individuals ought to have inalienable rights and govern themselves. The Enlightenment also fostered the great idea at the heart of today's digital world: information ought to be free.
Today, the idea that the Net offers a new sort of rationalism is a stretch. Newsgroups, Web sites, and online public discussions are disorganized. And along with online freedom comes its ugly offspring: the confrontation, misinformation, and insult that characterize many public forums on the Internet.
But in specialized areas - academic or scientific forums, for instance - the emergence of a new rationalism is easier to see. The Net brings information to remote researchers in hours, allows feedback in days that once took months, and generally democratizes the flow of information around the world. Since the Net was founded in part by scientific and academic communities, their use of it is more advanced - perhaps presaging what it can mean for the rest of us.
If this notion works for science, could it work for politics? Science focuses on facts and research, politics more on advancing beliefs or altering the beliefs of others. It's a big leap from a medium that moves facts around the world to one that influences values. But I've seen the process work; it can be done.
Time and again on The Netizen and elsewhere on the Web, facts have proven an antidote to unyielding doctrines. Debates have moved forward when factual information is cited; consensus is reached. In fact, one of the most enduring characteristics of online discussions is the frequent use of citations that the linkage of the Web makes possible. Arguments often are buttressed by information from Web sites, published research, and archived data.
The unprecedented ability of individuals to speak directly to one another advances the political discussion further than in the offline world. If neither party leaves a conversation completely transformed, each is able to do precisely what our existing system makes so difficult: fully understand the other person's position, absorb some of the other's values, and see the other as a complex person rather than a simplistic stereotype. Just the beginning
The Communications Decency Act of 1996, an effort to control the nature of speech on the Internet - making "indecent" language a federal crime - was the Net's own Stamp Act.
Like that 1765 law, the CDA stunned a community, one that from its inception had taken freedom for granted. It galvanized a diverse coalition of idiosyncratic individuals into a cohesive political force. Like the colonists, the online community saw the law as an arrogant act by an alien entity seeking to force its will on a new world that it had lost any moral right to control.
More than any single event, the CDA prompted people whose professional or personal lives center around the Internet to define a shared political ethic. It provided, for the first time, a common goal around which to coalesce. If the Stamp Act marked a turning point in the colonies' relationship with England, the CDA did the same for the digital world, giving credence to the notion of the birth of a Digital Nation.
The CDA's passage and the Digital Nation's reaction to it showed that the digital world was creating not a radically new value system, but that it was now the champion for a venerable old one: the notion of individual liberty. The Digital Nation demonstrated a willingness to fight for and expand upon those freedoms first articulated way back in the Enlightenment - freedom from arbitrary power, freedom of speech, freedom to determine one's own values and morals.
The gift of the CDA was the opportunity it presented the Digital Nation to fight for freedom all over again. It gave this ascending community a moral issue that all could believe in. It made them the heirs of a great tradition.
The digital world is often disconnected from many of the world's problems by virtue of its members' affluence and social standing. Founded in the bedrooms of suburban hackers and the classrooms of prestigious institutions, it has often been derided as self-absorbed. It has yet to respond to any political or social crisis that doesn't directly concern it.
The digital young do need to develop coherent philosophies for responding to the very problems that the exhausted current system fails to address: limited economic opportunity, endemic underclass problems, never-ending racial hostility. The Digital Revolution eventually needs to offer solutions for eradicating poverty, ignorance, and war in radical and hopeful ways.
Here is a growing élite in control of the most powerful communications infrastructure ever assembled. The people rushing toward the millennium with their fingers on the keyboards of the Information Age could become one of the most powerful political forces in history. Technology is power. Education is power. Communication is power. The digital young have all three. No other social group is as poised to dominate culture and politics in the 21st century.
It's not clear what they're going to make of such advantages, whether they will choose to remain a technologically obsessed subculture in pursuit of the Next Big Thing, or whether they will decide to meet the world head on and recognize their responsibilities as citizens of a new era.
The ascending young citizens of the Digital Nation can, if they wish, construct a more civil society, a new politics based on rationalism, shared information, the pursuit of truth, and new kinds of community.
If they choose to form a political movement, they could someday run the world. If they choose to develop a common value system, with a moral ideology and a humane agenda, they might even do the world some good.


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I agree that a notion of maxAge is useful (be it recommendedMaxAge or suggestedMaxAge). Age range is used as facet on e-commerce sites such as [1]. You can find similar age range on some item detail pages as well, for example this game of Angry Birds [2] says "Manufacturer recommended age: 5 - 9 years". Despite this recommendation, I bought this as a gift for a 30+, proof that it can be fun for those older than 9 yo. It's up to the consumer to do what they want with this info. Steph. [1] http://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keywords=board+games [2] http://www.amazon.com/Angry-Birds-Knock-Wood-Game/dp/B004U52VPS/ On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 2:29 PM, Karen Coyle <email@example.com> wrote: > Just to add a similar usage, materials aimed at K-12 students and teachers > often include a grade range ("grades 3-6") which is a suggested > minimum/maximum. It doesn't look to me that the educational community has > yet added its view to schema.org, but age and/or grade and/or skills > level will naturally be a part of that. The GEM vocabulary [1] includes > grade, level and age, and those can be ranges. They aren't meant to > exclude, they are information for educators (or parents) who are seeking > appropriate materials. I think of it as a "clue" rather than a "rule." > > kc > [1] http://dublincore.org/groups/**education/GEM-Study.html<http://dublincore.org/groups/education/GEM-Study.html> > > > On 12/13/12 11:06 AM, Dan Brickley wrote: > >> (top posting, but leaving some context below) >> >> Phil, >> >> We've discussed this (and your points below) amongst the schema.org >> partners. Here is a sketch of a compromise approach. >> >> 1. First, we acknowledge that schemas are useful when they reflect the >> complexity of real life rather than codifying over-stereotypical or >> cartoon views of the world, even though schemas by definition are >> always to some extent simplified descriptions. For example, schemas >> that describe people and model gender as a static binary property are >> over-simplifying the lives of many people, and can casually cause >> entirely avoidable offense. Although lots of Web sites do simplify in >> this way, it is probably not a good idea to have binary 'gender' >> properties in Web schemas, since sites that offer a more realistic >> nuanced view of the world shouldn't be forced to adopt the simplified >> view. >> >> 2. Generally sites have an incentive not to arbitrarily exclude >> potential audiences from their materials and offers; suggestedMaxAge >> is therefore probably of modest interest to most publishers. >> >> 3. There are some reasonable use cases for targeting content and >> offers by gender (e.g. health), and age (e.g. mortgage policies). Any >> reasonably expressive descriptive schema can be used to say >> ill-advised things. While there are unreasonable or foolish or >> tasteless or thoughtless potential uses of such vocabulary; it is not >> clear that restricting schema.org's vocabulary will help discourage >> sites from saying those things in natural language. It is hard to make >> general schema design policies in this area, and perhaps better to >> consider terms case by case. In this particular case, sites that >> needlessly exclude audiences may well be nudged more by common sense >> (why exclude potential customers?) than by the decisions of schema >> designers. >> >> 4. Schema.org provides a dictionary of terms; it leaves open the >> possibility of very different uses being made of those terms. You >> could use it to make a search system that excluded sites it deemed >> sexist or ageist or otherwise socially regressive. Or you could use it >> quite opposite ways. Neither usage scenario would be dictated by the >> definition of 'suggestedMaxAge'; the property would just make the >> statements from publishers easier to compute with. >> >> My sense is that there is enough reason to add such a property, but >> that it is worth documenting the fact that it is generally less useful >> than the suggested*Minimum*Age property. Speaking personally, although >> I do feel the Guardian-reading liberal urge to try to reform the world >> through schema design, I think that impulse should generally be >> restricted to avoiding patterns (eg. the gender example given earlier) >> whose every use is somehow problematic. >> >> Thanks for any further thoughts on this, >> >> cheers, >> >> Dan >> >> >> On 10 December 2012 18:10, Egor Antonov <email@example.com> wrote: >> >>> Hi Phil, >>> >>> thanks for the review. >>> Let me emphasize, that these properties are not restrictive (at the last >>> schema.org talk we decided to rename them to suggestedMinAge etc to >>> make it >>> more clear). >>> It's just a hint for personalization issues, pointing at the nucleous of >>> people, who maybe want to view/buy/use some content. >>> If somebody searches for films, he/she probably wants to see that films >>> which are intended for his/her age (and gender, too). >>> Also, there can be non-matching correlation between user and intended >>> audience. >>> We can understand, that somebody likes non-typical (for his age/gender) >>> things and suggest those things he/she likes. >>> >>> There are many websites with products, services and creative works, >>> which >>> explicitly mark their audience: >>> Games (5-12 years old): >>> http://www.mosigra.ru/Face/**Show/detskie_detektivi_5_12/<http://www.mosigra.ru/Face/Show/detskie_detektivi_5_12/> >>> Sport classes (mostly constrained by age in Russia): http://ttcentr.ru/ >>> Music courses (also russian): http://www.muz-school.ru/**courses/deti<http://www.muz-school.ru/courses/deti> >>> http://www.ssww.com/item/**candy-land-GA4700/cmc=** >>> BRWSGAMBRDYTH/grp=GAM/sbgrp=**BRD/ln=YTH/fp=GA4700/sort=**sales/p=1/<http://www.ssww.com/item/candy-land-GA4700/cmc=BRWSGAMBRDYTH/grp=GAM/sbgrp=BRD/ln=YTH/fp=GA4700/sort=sales/p=1/> >>> http://www.games14.co/ >>> http://www.gymboree.com/index.**jsp?ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=** >>> 1408474395917465&FOLDER%3C%**3Efolder_id=2534374303003787&** >>> bmUID=1354815600298<http://www.gymboree.com/index.jsp?ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395917465&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374303003787&bmUID=1354815600298> >>> (see categories) >>> >>> (I skip huge amount of woman clothes) >>> >> >> 2. The Audience proposal; based on the RDFa schema in >>> https://bitbucket.org/elderos/**schemaorg/src<https://bitbucket.org/elderos/schemaorg/src>I've built a test version >>> of the schema.org site that includes the Audience proposal (see >>> http://www.w3.org/wiki/**WebSchemas/Audience<http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebSchemas/Audience>). The draft site is at >>> http://sdo99a.appspot.com e.g. see http://sdo99a.appspot.com/** >>> Audience <http://sdo99a.appspot.com/Audience> >>> >>> [..] >>> >>> From a technical point of view, this is fine of course. From an ethical >>> one, there are aspects I find seriously worrying if not potentially >>> offensive. >>> >>> Why does anyone need to define the maximum age of an audience? An adult >>> friend of mine is not a strong reader. He reads books targeted at 11 >>> year olds - and enjoys them. Why put it in his face that he's reading >>> children's books? >>> >>> Minimum age - fine. We understand that. But you won't ever see a maximum >>> age on a film or game. >>> >>> Daft. Drop it. >>> >>> Gender? For a target audience? What? OK, so I'm a wishy washy dripping >>> wet liberal but if a girl wants to play with "boys' toys" or a boy wants >>> to read "chick lit" - why not? I think the content should speak for >>> itself and the potential consumer decide whether he/she wants it. The >>> Twilight saga is basically aimed at teenage girls, yes? I know at least >>> one teenage boy that read the whole series and many post-teenage girls >>> who enjoyed it too. >>> >>> Of course content *is* targeted at gender, but I don't think it should >>> be part of the data. >>> >>> Drop it. >>> >>> The parental ones - i.e. this is for parents of children aged x - y does >>> make sense. That's potentially useful for parents. >>> >> >> >> > -- > Karen Coyle > email@example.com http://kcoyle.net > ph: 1-510-540-7596 > m: 1-510-435-8234 > skype: kcoylenet > > -- Steph.Received on Thursday, 13 December 2012 19:49:11 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Friday, 17 January 2020 17:48:50 UTC

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Western Maine Affiliate (Med-Care Ambulance)
The Western Maine affiliate is an extension of Med-Care Ambulance, a non-profit service owned by eleven towns of the River Valley in Western Maine, covering an area of over 500 square miles. It provides emergency medical services to these towns and is active in Healthy Maine Partnerships, a state program that addresses cardiovascular health promotion and disease prevention and control. Their vision is a "Heart Healthy and Stroke-Free Maine." Among many recent accomplishments, they held 28 CPR educational programs and deployed 20 AEDs into the communities.
Nicaragua Trip January 2015
This was our 4th trip to Nicaragua. We have deployed nearly 20 AED's during this time. We trained over 300 nurses, doctors, village people, community leaders, tourist groups, police, first responders and firefighters during this time.
We have had one documented code save with the unit. Along with a life being saved by a dear friend of mine who had First Aid and Heimlich paperwork and his wife read this material and used the skills to save a young girls life! We honored her this year. Pic # 5.
Pic # 1- Remote village in Jiguillio. We deployed an AED and trained community leaders on the use of an AED, SCA, First Aid and CPR.
Pic # 2- Remote location which had previously received an AED from us. We trained their local community leaders in First Aid, CPR and AED
Pic # 3 Remote village located on the outskirts of Chinandega. We sponsored their school, fed the village people and deployed an AED
Pic # 4 One of the local Fire Brigades in Chinandega. They also have received an AED from us in the past. We return each year to offer additional training(s) and check on units.
The village we sponsored hung a sign on a tree upon our arrival, merely saying thank you and they love us.
Pictures of village children that benefited from the course and health care we offered.
Pictures taken during community training.
November 29, 2012
Letter to the Editor
I would like to extend a very special thank you to everyone that believed in the possibility of something greater for our friends inNicaragua. We were very busy while there and through our collaborative efforts we provided routine well being care and advanced medical surgeries for those in need. We facilitated "Hands Only" CPR awareness workshops, sudden cardiac arrest awareness classes, and automated external defibrillator trainings for over 200 doctors, nurses, and firefighters!
In addition to this, through generous donations we were able to deploy another three automated external defibrillators to much needed areas that otherwise had no life saving medical equipment.
It was a huge success and could not have been achieved without people like you.
I am so proud to share with you those that contributed;
Central MaineHeart and Vascular Institute
Medical Reimbursement Service
Pine Tree Cellular
Gallant's Furniture
Bessey's Auto
Webb River Sportman's Club
Rumford Rotary
MountainValleyEye Care
Lifesavers Inc
Silicon Valley Bank
Cardiac Science
Leading the way in spectacular customer relations was Bill Menke who heard of our transportation dilemma and took action. With that being said, Lee Auto Mall provided transportation AT NO CHARGE to and from Auburn to Boston for the entire 21 member medical group from Maine supplying us with three passenger vans and one cargo van for our luggage.
Laurieann Milligan
Western Maine Leader Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Maine Leader for Parent Heart Watch
Med-Care Ambulance
Western Maine Affiliate Donates AED to Local School to Protect Students, Staff and Visitors from SCA
Western Maine Donates AED to Local Volunteer Fire Department to Commemorate National CPR & AED Week
L to R) Julie Anderson, Monson Town Manager, Ben Thomas, Monson Fire Department/EMT-B, Dean Milligan Chief/Paramedic Med-Care Ambulance, Chris Sargent Monson Fire Department/EMT-P, Eric Melia Monson Fire Department Chief/EMT-P, Bobby Harris CA Dean Driver
Schools Gets Defibrillaters
By Mechele Cooper, Kennebec Journal
A fire association has donated two devices that jump-start hearts and prevent sudden cardiac deaths.
Rich Kindelan, president of the IAFF Local 2303 Gardiner Professional Firefighters, said his union raised $2,000 with aid from businesses and individuals to buy two cardiac defibrillators for Gardiner Area High School.
The powerful shock it delivers to the heart muscle is the only means of reviving cardiac-arrest victims whose hearts have gone into ventricular fibrillation -- a condition in which the heartbeat suddenly becomes chaotic. Complete Story
Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
by Cherri Crockett
RUMFORD- Bangor Savings Bank (BSB) and Med-Care Ambulance in partnership with Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA) held a free ski night at Black Mountain in February.
Throughout the night, participants had a chance to win various prizes after answering questions related to banking, health and emergency responder topics.
"River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition is such a vital part of our communities' awareness of living active and healthy lifestyles, stated Laurieann Milligan, leader of Western Maine Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association. "They graciously donated a Wii for us to give away.
Chris Henderson was the recipient of the Wii Fit by simply attending the free ski night and entering his name in a drawing.
"A lot of talk is in the air about wellness and overall healthy life style changes," stated Milligan. "All of us as parents, teachers and community leaders need to take action on this topic now versus later." "Obesity and heart disease is on the rise and people need to know there are answers out there."
Additional prizes were awarded to Steve Child, Steven Hildebrand and Tammy Noyes. They are encouraged to stop by the Med-Care building in Mexico to pick up their gifts.
Med-Care/SCAA, Bangor Savings Bank and River Valley Healthy Communities are here to assist you. Call or visit www.bangor.com, www.rvhcc.org or www.med-careambulance.com to learn more.
To find out if you are at risk for Sudden Cardiac Arrest visit www.suddencardiacarrest.org.
Chris Henderson is pictured here being presented with a Wii Fit by Patricia Duguay (left), executive director of River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition, Kelly Greene, manager of Bangor Savings in Rumford and Laurieann Milligan, Western Maine Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association leader. (Times photo by Cherri Crockett)
March 23rd, 2010
Med-Care is pleased to announce that it has just deployed its firstAutomated External Defibrillator to a common citizen for personaluse. Recently the device was deployed to Wayne Millen a citizen of West Paris here at Med-Care base. He has plans for his wife, family members, and friends to receive training on the use of this device as well as CPR and we are assisting him in accomplishing this.
Director of Operations Dean Milligan - This is the first ever for our organization and we hope it is one that will create a trend throughout the region for others that may have serious cardiac risks and want to add an additional level of security within their life. It also opened our eyes to the fact that we have not advertised or marketed AED's to local citizens and to the fact that these devices are available for their purchase through our organization for personal use.
In this particular case the individual has a substantial family cardiac history and wanted to acquire this life saving device to have in his possession so that his family or friends may have it available to utilize should he unexpectedly have a cardiac event that could potentially escalate and leave him in cardiac arrest. When Community Outreach and Public Education Coordinator Laurieann Milligan recently met with the individual to provide him his AED he stated that he wanted to take a proactive approach to this medical situation and not leave his loved ones in position where they wouldn't be able to help him and have to be reactionary in nature.
Community Outreach and Education Coordinator Laurieann Milligan stated that this was a wonderful idea on Wayne's part and one that we felt great about assisting him with being successful in fulfilling. This falls in line with our mission being part of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association as well as the Heart Safe Community program. Providing Public Education on Cardiac Arrest Risk Factors, Providing CPR training, Deploying AED's, and ensuring that the entire chain of survival is accomplished within our region as well as eliminating sudden cardiac arrest by 2020 are all part of our goals and objectives at Med-Care Ambulance.
If anyone throughout the River Valley is interested in additional information on AED's or to inquire if they would be appropriate to consider within their life please feel free to give Med-Care a call and speak with Laurieann.
Director of Operations Dean Milligan - Having deployed over 60 AED's throughout the River Valley Communities in a multitude of strategic locations it may now be time to focus on deploying them into the homes of high risk cardiac patients. According to statistics on the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association's website more than 66% of sudden cardiac arrest victims occur outside of a medical setting either in their homes, at work, or while recreating. This equates to around 1000 victims per day or about 1 person every 2 minutes. Furthermore, data supports that immediate CPR and early defibrillation dramatically increase the chances of survival. According to the American Heart Association over 50,000 lives annually could be saved annually by implementing an aggressive public awareness and education campaign along with extensive deployments of AED's throughout the Country. A very unique statistic that is worth mentioning is the fact that the highest survival rate of victims having a sudden cardiac arrest event in the United States occur in Casinos whereas almost all of them in the country have AED's and trained staff on site and have over an 80% save rate compared to around 20% if these events occur at home or in the public. For these reasons and statistics and many more like them is why it is part of our mission at Med-Care and one of our highest priorities to provide the public with educational opportunities and advanced medical equipment that can save someone's life.
Wayne Millen stated to Laurieann during their conversations that a big motivator for me to do this was having my brother die at 53 in his home from a sudden cardiac arrest. He was aware that he had coronary artery disease. His wife was home at the time and if he had an AED in the house he may have survived the event. He lives in a rural area similar to me and it takes eight to twelve minutes for an ambulance to arrive-too long as you know to usually help a victim of sudden cardiac arrest.
Director Meets with Senator Susan Collins
Recently Director of Operations Dean Milligan had an opportunity to be part of an award presentation by the Maine Ambulance Association to Senator Susan Collins. Director Milligan currently serves on the Executive Board of the Maine Ambulance Association representing not for profit ambulance services State wide. The award was to recognize Senator Collins for her continued dedication and service on behalf of all Maine Ambulance Services and personnel at the Federal Level. Senator Collins has been a strong voice and advocate for increased Medicare Reimbursement levels for ambulance providers throughout the Country and especially for rural ambulance services in Maine and Nationwide. Senator Collins was also instrumental in sponsoring a bill that has since brought thousands of Automated External Defibrillators to non-traditional locations throughout communities across this Nation. Examples of placement of AED's approved under this program include public schools, airports, police cruisers, fire trucks, town halls, and non-profit community and recreation sites.
After having photos taken Director Milligan had an opportunity to speak directly with Senator Collins about several topics including that Med-Care has teamed up with and deployed over 60 AED's throughout the River Valley Communities since the inception of this program. In Senator Collins speech she eluded to the fact that around 600 had been deployed in Maine which shows that Med-Care has been directly involved with deploying 10% of the entire State's allocation. Senator Collins advised Dean that this program was created exactly for this reason and she knew up front the benefit that these devices would bring to rural Maine. She was ecstatic to hear the stories from so many people across the State of Maine of how these devices have saved lives.
Director Milligan also spoke with Senator Collins about the critical situation that ambulance services in the State of Maine are faced with in providing the highest quality of care to patients but not receiving adequate payments for those services through Medicare. They spoke directly about super rural areas in Maine and how bills supported by Senator Collins ensure an additional 12 to 15 percent reimbursement for services in those areas which includes all of Med-Care's towns. This bill has just recently ended due to the grid lock on the Health Care debate and needs to be a priority to get reinstated immediately. Senator Collins assured Dean that this program has the support of the majority in Senate and will either be renewed on its own merit or incorporated into the larger final healthcare bill.
Lastly Director Milligan had an opportunity to speak with Senator Collins about Stimulus Funding and the fact that Med-Care had put in a request for funding assistance for a new ambulance facility. Senator Collins informed Dean that it was an extremely competitive process but to not give up and to please submit a second request this year for the project funding.
We are extremely happy that our Director had an opportunity to not only meet Senator Collins but to have had the opportunity to speak with her about issues directly affecting our ambulance service and the River Valley Communities that we serve. We felt that it was extremely important to let all of you know that the Director is involved on boards, teams, and committees that take him around the Country, State, and County, which all ultimately have a positive impact on our service to you here at the local level.
Senator Collins and Director Milligan
FREE Ski Wednesday!
Bangor Savings Bank, Med-Care Ambulance, and Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association are teaming up to provide a Free Ski Night at Black Mountain of Maine to show our commitment to all within the River Valley. It is our goal to help bring both financial and a healthy success in 2010 and beyond.
Come enjoy a night out of skiing, snowboarding, tubing, or just relaxing in the lodge and lounge with us. At the same time take advantage of the professionals from our organizations that will be on site with displays and information. Bangor Savings Bank staff will be on hand to assist you with all of your financial and investing needs to help ensure financial security within your life. At the same time Med-Care and Sudden Cardiac Arrest will have staff on site with numerous displays about healthy living, disease and injury prevention, and youth and adult cardiac screenings to preserve your life.
This is a wonderful opportunity to come out and join others from all over the River Valley in taking advantage of this hidden gem called Black Mountain right in our own backyards. It is our pleasure to be able to provide you and your family with a great healthy opportunity to come out into the fresh air and start the 2010 year off right and hopefully help bring you health and financial security into your life.
February 10th 4PM - 9PM
- Free skiing, snowboarding and tubing
- Free beginner lessons on Moose Run from 5PM - 7PM
- Save $2.50 on Sat/Sun after FREE Ski Night with your ticket
- Ski/Snowboard rentals $15.00, shop opens @ 3:45PM
- Café will be open
- Last Run Lounge will be open
NOTE: For anyone under 18, rental forms & tubing waivers must be signed by a responsible adult.
For more information & to download forms before arriving, check the mountains website or call the lodge.
Black Mountain of Maine
39 Glover Road, Rumford, ME 04276
(207) 364-8977 www.skiblackmountain.org
Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association and Defibtech Team Up to Donate Defibrillator to Community Concepts Chisholm School
The Western Maine affiliate of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA), Med-Care Ambulance, in collaboration with Defibtech, has selected the Community Concepts Chisholm School to be the recipient of an automated external defibrillator (AED) which will be presented to Michelle Sprague, program director at an event on October 6th, 2009
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the nation's leading cause of death, resulting in more than 300,000 fatalities each year - exceeding the death rate of lung cancer, breast cancer and HIV/AIDS combined. Only about five percent of SCA victims survive. SCA is caused by an electrical malfunction of the heart, which results in rapid and erratic heart rhythm and then the heart's failure to beat. Through immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the shock of an automated external defibrillator (AED) the heart's natural rhythm can be restored and the victim revived. However, an AED shock is most successful if delivered within the first 7 minutes of the cardiac arrest event. After a more extended period, the heart may not respond to the AED shock, or if it does, the victim could experience brain damage and other complications due to the lack of blood and oxygen flow.
In honor of National AED/CPR Week which was June 1st-7th, Defibtech, a leading manufacturer of AEDs, donated equipment to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association so that its chapters and affiliates could award AEDs to community facilities and locations in need of a life-saving device. Med-Care Ambulance selected Community Concepts Chisholm School as the River Valley recipient.
"Looking geographically at the River Valley and the Non-profit entities within our area it was very logical to consider the Community Concepts Chisholm School as the recipient of this AED. The school and staff do so much to support the vision of healthy families and overall well being for children. Services are tailored toward low income families but they also offer a host of programs to the general public as their mission is as follows: Head Start and Early Head start, Family programs including Children's behavioral health, counseling and support and numerous housing services. There are more than 500 volunteers that help Community Concepts meet its mission on an annual basis. In following with our goal to implement AED's in public places while working hard today for a safer tomorrow we are proud to be deploying this one to the Community Concepts and Chisholm school" said affiliate leader, Laurieann Milligan.
"I am very pleased that we have received an AED that we can place in a school within our community. This is one more layer of protection for all of the children, parents, and educators that walk through those school doors every day. This grant will allow us to distribute our 53rd AED and to create a new partnership with an organization. It is great to know that through our Community Outreach Program in conjunction with SCAA and Defibtech we can provide Community Concepts and the Chisholm School staff with the tools and training to save a life in the event of a cardiac arrest event at their location,"said Med-Care Ambulance's Director of Operations and Chief of Service Dean Milligan.
On this day Community Concepts Chisholm School will take one step closer to making a difference in their staff, children's, and overall community healthy well being. The presentation took place on October 6th, 2009 . Join us in congratulating Community Concepts Chisholm School in taking this proactive measure in fighting this nation's leading cause of death.
"Our singular purpose in partnering with the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association is to strengthen the 'chain of survival' for sudden cardiac arrest victims," said Greg Slusser, Defibtech's vice president of sales and marketing. "Through these donations, the critical time from when a victim suffers SCA to when they receive medical intervention with an AED will be decreased in the communities where they are deployed. We are proud to support the SCA in its mission to spread the word that sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause death in the U.S. and only through public access defibrillation programs can more lives can be saved."
For more information, please contact Laurieann Milligan at email@example.com.
Outlining the heart shape; children, staff, volunteers and Med-Care duty crew Captain Berta Broomhall & EMT Norman St. Pierre. Inside the heart shape site manager receiving the AED Michelle Sprague and deploying the AED SCAA Leader Laurieann Milligan
SCAA Leader Laurieann Milligan, Site manager Michelle Sprague, Captain Berta Broomhall and EMT Norman St. Pierre depicted in photo Med-Care Ambulance with SCAA logo.
(left to right) Chief Med-Care Ambulance/SCAA Affiliate Leader, Site manager Michelle Sprague, Captain Berta Broomhall and EMT Norman St. Pierre depicted in photo Med-Care Ambulance with SCAA logo
SCAA's Western Maine Affiliate in conjunction with Med-Care Ambulance had a booth at the River Valley Chamber of Commerce's Business Expo 2009 on September 18th and 19th. The Expo was held at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, Maine. Over 1,500 people attended this 70-exhibitor expo. Best of the Expo awards were given based on the following judging criteria:
- Was "the message" of the display conveyed to you?
- Did the booth show what that business was all about?
- Was the booth neat and organized?
- Were the booth personnel prepared and ready?
- How was the overall design of the booth?
- Did the business have effective use of materials in creating booth display?
- Was the business original in displaying its product?
In the Non-profit category the SCAA Western Maine Affiliate/Med-Care Ambulance booth was voted #1 Best Exhibitor.
In October 2008, Med-Care Ambulance announced its newest partnership with the Area Youth Football League. Between playoff games a presentation of an Automatic External Defibrillator was presented to League President Scott Gauvin. This will hopefully be the beginning of a relationship throughout the Sandy Andy Football League which includes several other communities including Jay, Turner, Greenwood, Farmington. The ultimate goal will be to deploy an AED within each of these programs so that on any given Sunday every football game played within this league will have an AED present as an additional safety measure for the children and the spectators in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest event. After listening to a presentation by Med-Care about the need for AED's to be present at all sporting events league president Scott Gauvin not only agreed but immediately made the commitment on behalf of the Rumford area league to purchase the first AED as the example for the other league teams to follow. Furthermore, President Gauvin also agreed to allow Med-Care to come to a league coach's meeting to make a presentation on Sudden Cardiac Arrest in young athletes, initiate the challenge to each of the leagues to create a partnership and purchase an AED for their programs, and lastly offer each league free CPR and AED training as part of Med-Care's obligation within the partnership. President Scott Gauvin also said that it is his intention to offer this AED to the Mountain Valley School Administrative District #43 for their usage throughout the year when the AYF program is not in session in an attempt to ensure that during any athletic event happening at Hosmer Field this AED would be available in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest situation.
On July 7th, 2009, SCAA's Western Maine Affiliate was a sponsor of the 7th Annual Golf Tournament at Oakdale Country Club. The sponsorship was used as a opportunity to highlight SCAA and the work of the Western Maine Affiliate. Defibtech donated an AED to Oakdale Country Club for the event, and for their continued use. Proceeds from the tournament benefited the Rumford Rotary Club, and the Rover Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Pictured left to right: Dean Milligan, Assistant Chief, Chris Moretto, Laurieann Milligan, SCAA Western Maine Affiliate Leader, Paramedic David Florin, Paramedic Toby Martin
Local School District #21 purchased a Defibtech AED for their local Wellness Center. The AED deployment is pictured below.
Pictured left to right: Laurieann Milligan, SCAA Western Maine Affiliate Leader, Nurse Kathy Sutton, Health Coordinator and Superintendent Dr. Tom Ward.
Med-Care Ambulance's new logo depicts all of their combined resources to offer a well rounded injury prevention and proactive take on health issues.
Western Maine's 2008 Activity Report
Laurieann Milligan
c/o Med-Care Ambulance
273 Main Street
Mexico, ME 04257
Phone: (207) 364-8748
In the News
None at this time.


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In his work "al-Cavab al-Mustaqim," Muhyiddin Ibn' Arabi responded a question put by Al-Haqim at-Tirmidhi in his "Hatm'al-awliya" by saying:
"He [Hazrat Mahdi (as)] is someone who acquires the truth and closely resembles his forefather [Muhammad (saas)]. HE DOES NOT SPEAK ARABIC VERY WELL, but he is no different to him in moral terms. HE WILL BE OF MEDIUM HEIGHT. THE AGE OF PROPERTY WILL COME TO AN END WITH HIM, AND SOVEREIGNTY WILL END WITH HIM.."
(Al-Javab al-Mustaqim amma Seele anhu at-Tirmidhi al-Haqim, Bayazid, no: 3750, sheet 242b)


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I have spent alot of time searching for Vintage Pant Hangers [and looking at a blank hallway wall] that I could use to hang up 6 prints that I purchased from Obvious State on Etsy. Finding one hanger here and there and paying $10-15 a piece didn't interest me. I found 6 hangers at my local consignment store for $4.95 and I already had my favorite DIY product Briwax, I decided to just make my own 'Vintage' Hangers. It ended up being a very easy project + gratification was almost instant!!
- Wood pant hangers
- Sander + Sandpaper [I love my Black + Decker Mouse < $40 + gets in all the little nooks & crannies!]
- Briwax [I used the Tutor Brown}
- Assortment of tools for 'aging+ damaging' i.e. hammer, awl, screwdriver + pliers
- Fine grade steel wool
- Rags
- Double sided 'sticky' tape
- Remove the padding from the underside of each hanger. Clean with soap and water and let air dry
- Sand the outside and underside of each hanger. Don't be afraid to be aggressive on the edges, you want to get a 'worn' look!
- Using any fine grade steel wool, rub over sanded areas to smooth the surfaces to be waxed.
- Carefully avoid the metal hanger, and damage the wooden areas of the hanger by pounding, hitting, crunching and scratching with your tool assortment
- Using your rags, follow the directions on the Briwax container in a well ventilated area and apply to the wood on your hanger. [A little bit goes a long way...] Let dry for 30 - 45 minutes and polish waxed areas with an additional clean rag.
- Place a strip of double sided sticky tape on the BACK side of your picture, position and close your hanger + hang!


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Ice Cube has had a nice career run on the big screen – and now, the rest of his old N.W.A. pals are about to join him… sort of.
Andrea Berloff, the writer behind Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," is penning "Straight Outta Compton," the big screen tale of the iconic rap group, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The group, which put gangsta rap and Compton, Calif., on the map, launched the careers of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and the late Eazy-E, as well as MC Ren and DJ Yella, with the debut of their "Straight Outta Compton" album in 1988.
N.W.A. had several hit records before internal turmoil eventually broke up the group in the early '90s.
Ice Cube – aka O'Shea Jackson — left the group in 1990, but went on to a successful solo rap career before transitioning into a full-fledged box office star.
Dr. Dre – aka Andre Young – has established himself as one of the premiere producers in the rap/hip-hop genre over the years, launching the careers of Snoop Dogg and Eminem, amongst others.
The brash and outspoken Eazy-E – aka Eric Wright – was largely the face of the group until they split in 1991. In March 1995, he announced he had been diagnosed with AIDS. He died two weeks later at age 31.
While no castings have been announced for the biopic, Ice Cube will serve as a producer on the film. Tomica Woods – Eazy-E's widow – is also listed as a producer on the project.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
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PLAY IT NOW: Access Extended: 'DJ Hero' Game Launch Party
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MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Rappers - Movies - TV One - Casting Call


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Message Board
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Apacheria: An Epic of Alternate History
What if the US had negotiated a lasting treaty with the greatest warrior nation of the Native Americans: the Apache? In this alternate history, the Apache win recognition as a sovereign nation led by Geronimo and his clan. How would the rest of American history have been changed - from WWI to gangsters in Chicago - by this change?...


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Law Firm of VAUGHN, WEBER & PRAKOPE, PLLC | New York Personal Injury Attorneys
NEW YORK, NY – New York City Comptroller John C. Liu, on behalf of the trustees of the New York City Pension Funds, is calling on directors at Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) to conduct an independent audit of their banks' mortgage and foreclosure practices. The four banks are the largest mortgage servicers in the country representing 56 percent of the nation's $10.64 trillion mortgage industry.
Comptroller Liu – the investment advisor, custodian and trustee of the New York City Pension Funds, collectively valued at $106 billion – made the request in a shareholder proposal filed at each of the four banks. The proposal calls for the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors at each bank to conduct an independent review of the bank's internal controls related to loan modifications, foreclosures and securitizations and to report their findings to shareholders by September 30, 2011.
"We raised concerns with the banks in July that misaligned incentives, inferior customer service and repeated requests for paperwork were undermining the loan modification process and leading to unnecessary foreclosures for homeowners," Comptroller Liu said. "The magnitude of these problems suggests a larger systemic failure with consequences that have not only adversely affected homeowners and become a drain on regional economies, but also left shareholders vulnerable to substantial liabilities.
"Directors are elected by shareholders and as shareholders we intend to hold them accountable," Comptroller Liu continued. "The banks are under intensive legal and regulatory scrutiny and the independent directors are ultimately responsible for compliance. It's time they step forward and reassure shareholders that the banks' internal controls are robust." Under both NYSE listing requirements and the banks' own governance documents, the Audit Committee of the respective boards — typically comprised of independent directors — is ultimately responsible for legal and regulatory compliance.
The shareholder proposal states that when the Boards of Directors report back to shareholders, the report should specifically address:
- Policies and procedures to address potential financial incentives to foreclose when other options may be more consistent with the Company's long-term interests;
- Whether management has allocated a sufficient number of trained staff; and
- The Company's compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and its own policies and procedures.
"We serve in the all five boroughs of NYC (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx, and Manhattan) and all towns in Long Island including Nassau County and Suffolk County."
Copyright © 2020 Law Firm of Vaughn, Weber and Prakope, PLLC All Rights Reserved


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Monday, June 6, 2011
Natural Selection in Dividend Portfolios
The changes that could occur include buyouts, dividend cuts, spin offs and changes in the business environment. I highlighted several conditions which would make me to sell my dividend stocks in this article.
Many prominent dividend stocks could be attractive buyout targets for larger rivals or by companies which are looking to diversify into a new line of business. Shareholders usually receive a big premium which ensures that almost everyone makes a profit in the process. This doesn't take into consideration the fact that a growing company might deliver much higher total returns if it stayed independent.
Recent examples of buyout include the acquisition of dividend aristocrats Anheuser-Busch in 2008 by Inbev (BUD). At the time the company which controlled almost half of the US beer market had a dividend record of 32 years of consecutive dividend increases.
Other examples of successful dividend growth stocks bought our include the Quaker Oats acquisitions by PepsiCo (PEP) in 2001 as well as Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.B) acquisition of GEICO in 1996. Investors who received stock in the acquirer had to evaluate whether they should keep it or sell it. Investors who received cash had to find other attractively valued replacements for their dividend portfolio.
The opposite of buyouts is spin offs, which is the creation of an independent company through the sale or distribution of new shares of an existing business/division of a parent company. Back in 2007 Altria Group (MO) spun off Kraft Foods (KFT) and distributed shares in the food company to its shareholders. In 2008 Altria also spun-off Philip Morris International (PM). This led to a decrease in the net dividend from 86 cents/share in 2007 to 29 cents/share in 2008. The company was a member of the dividend aristocrats index and boasted a long record of consistent dividend increases. After the spinoff however, it was removed from the index. Investors who closely followed the elite dividend index disposed of the stock. Others which used a more discretionary investing strategy had to evaluate the business of three companies – Altria Group (MO), Philip Morris International (PM) and Kraft Foods (KFT). All of the companies have been able to increase dividends since the spinoff.
Another corporate event which has been a decisive sell signal for many dividend investors is when companies cut or suspend dividend payments. Companies typically cut dividends as a last resort of action, which is why a dividend cut truly shows how dire the business conditions for the company really are. Selling right after a dividend cut has been a smart move. Overall investors who sold immediately after the dividend cut in 2007 and 2008 avoided major blowups such as Citigroup (C) or Washington Mutual (WM). This is typically when I sell my dividend stocks as well and then reinvest the proceeds in stocks which are attractively valued and have strong dividend growth potential. In my experience as a dividend investor, companies that cut dividends either have their stock prices decimated to zero or stage a huge recovery. Investors who purchase dividend cutters are playing against all odds, since a 100% gain followed by a 90% loss would not lead to sustainable wealth accumulation over time.
Full Disclosure: Long KFT, MO, PEP and PM
Relevant Articles:
- Six Dividend Stocks to Hold Forever
- Dividend growth stocks are attractive buyout targets
- Philip Morris International versus Altria
- Replacing dividend stocks sold
8 comments:
- AnonymousJune 6, 2011 at 5:16 AM
What are readers' general thoughts on what I call "Yield Augmentation," selling a stock that has appreciated so that its yield is now pulling down the portfolio average yield and replacing it with a higher yielder. For example, if you start out with 10 stocks each with a 3% yield, then one of them appreciates 50% so that it yields only 2% now, you could replace it with another 3% yielder. This is one other contributor to turnover in my portfolio beyond the factors discussed in the article.ReplyDelete
Do please share your thoughts.
How could you hold something forever?ReplyDelete
Quick examples:
- Only 202 of the 500 biggest companies in the United States in 1980 were still in existence 20 years later.
- On December 29, 1989, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average reached its all-time peak of 38,915.87. Twenty years later, the Nikkei has never again reached that level — and, in 2009, reached a new low of 7,054.98.
- AnonymousJune 6, 2011 at 1:56 PM
I was looking at KFT as well but noticed that they did not raise dividends in 2010 (1.16 for 2009 & 2010).ReplyDelete
Am I missing a spin-off, split or other that may be impacting this?
@Financial Independence asks how you could hold something forever?ReplyDelete
"Only 202 of the 500 biggest companies in the United States in 1980 were still in existence 20 years later."
Well if you selected out of the 202 remaining companies, you could probably then "hold forever" .....not a difficult task for dividend value investors.
- AnonymousJune 6, 2011 at 8:03 PM
First anon -ReplyDelete
I struggle with that quite a bit... I was fortunate to buy CAT back when it was ~40 and had a solid yield, where as now not so much.
In general as long as they are continuing to raise dividends I try to focus on yield on costs (which would still be at your ~3%)
If you do focus on yield on cost, selling a big gainer will only hurt because you will pay some form of capital gains and therefor are reducing your YoC by at least 15% (plus additional commissions etc).
I would definitely enjoy hearing others views
- AnonymousJune 7, 2011 at 6:12 AM
To the commenter who owns CAT for a big gain:ReplyDelete
I think that in order to look at the decision to sell CAT, you should take the scenario one step further and consider what you would replace it with. I'm guessing that when you bought it CAT had about a 4.2% yield, so if you bought $10,000 worth you would get $420 in dividends. In round numbers, your stock is now worth $25,000 and you get $441 in annual dividends.
If you sell now, pay 20% in taxes on the gains, use the net proceeds of $22,000 to buy another 4% yielder you will earn $880 in annual dividends, about double where you are now. This is what I called "Yield Augmentation" in my post at 5:16 AM up above. If income is your top priority, it might be worth a try.
- AnonymousJune 8, 2011 at 5:15 AM
612am anon:ReplyDelete
I completely agree, and selling my CAT for additional div income is definitely a goal. Exit criteria is something that I always struggle with and as a whole I am usually hesitant to sell in a situation like this because I try to avoid chasing yield.
Assuming everything is properly screened and it is an extreme case where a large run-up has majorly depleted your yield I would agree with you.
Overall though, I do try to focus both at yield and cost and my yield at a portfolio level. If you did have 30-ish stocks the impact will still be noticeable bot closer to 30bps not 2-3%.
As always would enjoy hearing any thoughts
- AnonymousJune 8, 2011 at 7:23 AM
Also, anyone have any comment on the KFT annual dividend raises? Did I read it wrong / am I missing something?ReplyDelete
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Hieromartyr Simeon, Bishop in Persia, and those with him - Troparion & Kontakion
Troparion — Tone 4
As an instructor of divinely inspired doctrines / you trained martyrs for contest by your words and deeds. / You suffered with them, holy hierarch Simeon, / crying out to Christ while hastening to Him: / "We are counted as sheep for the slaughter out of love for You, O Savior."
Kontakion — Tone 4
With your holy band of martyrs / you shone forth from Persia like radiant stars. / With them we praise you, O Simeon.


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Sweetwater Library
- In 1905, some very distinguished people of Sweetwater gathered together to discuss the need for a library. After much planning and organization, the Sweetwater Public Library Association was located in a vacant room in a school building donated by Colonel O.C. Hulvey. In 1908, however, the library was moved to a small building on a plot of land, both of which were provided by Mrs. Bland E. Clark. The name was then changed to the "Helen M. Cooke Memorial Library" in honor of Mrs. Clark's sister. In 1980, ground was broken for yet another bigger and better library building. Funding donated by Mrs. Florine Jones Hall helped to make this happen. Located on the corner of Biggs and Oak Streets now stands what is known as the Sweetwater Public Library.
The first library building
The second library building
Inside the second library
Sweetwater Children's Library
- In 1985, Florine Jones Hall donated funds in order to expand the library. Her donations paved the way to the construction of a stand-alone children's section.
Thus, the Children's Library was born. Because of this addition, children of all ages have come to enjoy the benefits offered by our library.


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By Abdullah Qazi
The vast majority of Afghanistan's population professes to be followers of Islam. Over 1400 years ago, Islam demanded that men and women be equal before God, and gave them various rights such the right to inheritance, the right to vote, the right to work, and even choose their own partners in marriage. For centuries now in Afghanistan, women have been denied these rights either by official government decree or by their own husbands, fathers, and brothers.
During the rule of the Taliban (1996 - 2001), women were treated worse than in any other time or by any other society. They were forbidden to work, leave the house without a male escort, not allowed to seek medical help from a male doctor, and forced to cover themselves from head to toe, even covering their eyes. Women who were doctors and teachers before, suddenly were forced to be beggars and even prostitutes in order to feed their families.
Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, many would agree that the political and cultural position of Afghan women has improved substantially. The recently adopted Afghan constitution states that "the citizens of Afghanistan - whether man or woman- have equal rights and duties before the law".
So far, women have been allowed to return back to work, the government no longer forces them to wear the all covering burqa, and they even have been appointed to prominent positions in the government. Despite all these changes many challenges still remain. The repression of women is still prevalent in rural areas where many families still restrict their own mothers, daughters, wives and sisters from participation in public life. They are still forced into marriages and denied a basic education. Numerous school for girls have been burned down and little girls have even been poisoned to death for daring to go to school.
The Plight of the Afghan Woman
By Abdullah Qazi


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Hopes are high among economic circles in Yemen that the Yemeni-Saudi border treaty will enable investors from both countries to establish joint plans for investment in industrial, agricultural and marine sectors. Potential is strong for projects in the free zone of Aden, which could increase exports of the two neighbouring countries. An upcoming visit by a Saudi business delegation, led by Ali Abdu Yamani, will undertake an economic feasibility study of the Aden industrial free zone.
Immediately after the announcement of signing the Yemeni-Saudi border treaty, the Yemen Riyal jumped nearly 5 percent versus the U.S. dollar to a rate of YR 153 to 1 US$. Economic experts predict that in the case of slow and gradual normalization in commercial relations with Saudi Arabia, the Riyal will continue to appreciate steadily. Another factor behind the rise of the Riyal is the anticipated impact of the border treaty on long-term financial aid from Saudi Arabia, and the resumption of acceptance of Yemeni labour into Saudi markets.
Meanwhile, Yemen is aggressively seeking to expand its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity. To this end, the Yemen LNG Co. is moving forward with the bidding of major packages for its plant, despite the lack of a single sales contract. Engineering, procurement and construction bids are due to be submitted in mid-September for the two main packages, which include the plant contract and the pipeline. Even though Yemen LNG has yet to conclude any sales and purchase agreements with international customers, contractors are still taking the bidding process seriously. Yemen LNG's principal target markets are South Korea and India.